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Life After Death/Issue 6
The two vehicles pulled to a stop on the side of the highway, still near the forest. The highway was cluttered with abandoned vehicles and dead bodies. Everyone got out of the vehicles, except for Devon, who sat in the truck, motionless. Gregory, noticing him still inside, walked over to the truck and opened the door. "Come on, Devon," he said. "Get out. You need some fresh air." "You guys should have left me," he replied. "I let her die...I failed." "I'm going to tell you a story. Before everything went to hell, I was a court judge, and when all this happened, the courtroom got attacked. Right in the middle of a trial. Dozens of them busting through the doors, people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I made it out...but nobody else did. They all died...When me and my wife and son were trying to get out of the city, the roads were jammed. We decided to get out and walk, and the second they stepped out...they were just...gone. Blood flying all over the car, guts all over the road. And the screams...my god, the screams...they haunt me every night. At first, I blamed myself. I kept myself up every night thinking of how I could have avoided all of that. I beat myself up, spent countless hours wishing I was dead. After a while, I came to a realization: some things happen that are out of our control." Devon looked at Gregory. "I know you miss your sister, and I know how terrible you must feel. But don't, for the love of god, blame yourself. Everyone has lost someone they love." "You were wrong," Devon said. "About Andre. He saved me." "I know I was wrong. He's an unpredictable one. I expected...after Mark, that he would have killed you...You still should have left when you had the chance." "Why?" Gregory turned around to make sure no one was listening. "This group...it's a mess. Eric has no idea how to lead a group. He makes rash decisions that end up fucking everything up. He says they're for the 'better of the group'. 'Better of the group' my ass. And don't even get me started on Bill. Fucking worthless piece of shit." "What about Emily? And Dolph?" "I didn't say everyone was bad...just watch your step around Eric and Bill. You'll never know when one of them is about to stab you in the back." ---- Devon and Gregory stepped outside, Gregory went and stood with the rest of the group, and Devon sat in the bed of the truck. "This needs to stop," Eric said. "People dying. We need to stop taking these breaks and procrastinating. We need to head west, to Harter. Devon, I had no intention of telling you this, but now, since it looks like you'll be joining us, Dolph and his sister were separated. They had a plan to go to a community in the west called Harter, so that's where we are headed. From now on, we need to head straight west. Only stops are for gas and pissing. We have food, we have water, we have enough ammo to make it there. Any objections? No? Good." "What if this place is overrun?" Devon asked, staring blankly at the road. "What if...there's nobody there." "There is," Dolph answered. "I heard about it when this all started. They were talking about some safe haven there. We were heading there, then we got split up." "But what if it got attacked? What if everyone left?" "Is that all you're gonna be? Negative? Yeah, you lost your sister, big whoop. It's not like none of us have lost people. No, our lives have been just full of laughs and happy times. Get over it." "Dolph," Gregory said, shaking his head at him. "Fuck off," Devon said to Dolph. "You want to fight?" Dolph asked intimidatingly. "Come at me, bro," Devon got off the truck, and walked up to Dolph, staring him in the eyes. "I said, fuck off." "That's it? That's all you got?" "You want me to hit you?" "Dolph, stop," Emily said. "You aren't helping anything," Eric said to Dolph. Dolph scoffed, and walked back to the car and got in the back. Emily walked over to Devon. "Don't mind Dolph," she said. "He's easy to piss off, give it a while and he'll be back to talking about sports." Emily noticed Devon's blank stare. "Hey, are you going to be alright?" "No...when we were little, our dad abused us. I made her a promise that...that I'd protect her. I broke that promise. I-I..." Devon started to break down again, and Emily hugged him. "It'll be okay, don't worry." ---- The vehicles hit the road again, driving down the highway, zig-zagging around the parked vehicles. Eventually they make it into the city, where they pull in to a gas station. They all get out of the vehicles. "We need gas," Eric said. "Try to search around for any jerrycans. If we have to, we can try to cipher some out of the cars back on the road." "I thought you said no more stops," Bill said, sarcastically. "Don't start with me, Bill." Devon, Andre, Emily, and Brie searched outside the gas station, Bill and Dolph looked inside the gas station, and Eric and Gregory looked around the cars by the road. "Gregory said you were going to kill me," Devon said to Andre, surprising him. "Excuse me?" Andre replied. "He said that you were going to kill me like you did that Mark person, and that you don't trust strangers." "Gregory might seem like he's shit, but he ain't. He's bad at reading people, I have no idea how he ever got to be a judge. I didn't trust you at first...but I realized...I can't kill again. Not after what I did to Mark. That fucker deserved it...but it still felt awful. I'm sorry I was an asshole, and I'm sorry about your sister." "Don't be...like Gregory said to me, there are just some things that are out of our control." Devon walked off, leaving Andre to think. Devon walked over to the corner of the store and picked up a can of gas. He swished it around, and there was still about a third left in it. "Here's a bit," he said. "I think that's about all that's in here," Andre replied. "Let's go tell Eric." Outside, the two approached Eric, who was looking through vehicles to try and scrape up what he could. "Here's some," Andre said, as Devon held out the can. "Not a lot, but it's something." "I haven't been able to get any," Eric told them. "Good job. This will help a lot." "Here's some!" Brie shouted. She walked out from behind a car across the street with a red gas can. She handed it to Eric. "Holy fuck, it's still full. Awesome, this will take us quite a long way." Several minutes later, they all regrouped at the two vehicles. Nobody was able to find more than what Brie and Devon found. "Alright, this is all we're getting, for now," Eric said. "This should take us a long way, but it won't take us all the way. We're going to have to all pile in the truck to save gas. We could probably fit six inside, if someone sits in the front-middle. That leaves two in the back." "Shotgun," Dolph said. "I'll take the back, I guess," Devon said. "I will, too," said Emily. "So...the rest of us inside?" Eric rhetorically asked. "Alright, let's go." ---- The truck drove down the road, Devon and Emily in the back, and everyone else in the front. Devon stared down the road as they passed by the ditch that his car had crashed in the day before. They passed a twist in the road, and off to the right was the corner store he and Leslie raided. Devon sighed, and closed his eyes, wishing that this nightmare would end. Credits * * * * * * * * Deaths *None Trivia *First mention of .